If found in violation of the FTC guidelines, Spencer Noren could face up to $50,120 per violation
Spencer Noren, also known as Ventura Forward online, has gained over 47,000 Instagram followers. He also runs a business along with his wife, Melyssa Noren, called Yo Social Media, which provides a partnership with the Ventura Forward social media account. These paid partnerships may violate FTC regulations for failing to adequately disclose an advertisement in which he has a financial, personal, or familial relationship with the business, as well as illegally entering into contracts with customers.
The Yo Social Media service was filed in October 2017, under Mrs. Noren’s name. Originally, Yo Social Media was run as an SMMA (Social Media Marketing Agency) for local businesses, providing services for social media and website creation. We reached out to Mrs. Noren via email, which we believe is not in use and was confirmed by Mr. Noren to not be in use anymore. When we asked Mr. Noren to forward a message to his wife about a possible interview request, he said, “What do you need to know about the company? I can answer any questions !??” and “You got it. That’s it. There isn’t more to it.”
In January 2022, the Yo Social LLC (Limited liability company) received an FTB (Franchise Tax Board) suspension, and in August 2022, Yo Social made its last social media post on Instagram. In January 2025, they filed a statement of information changing the address linked to the LLC to another address. FTB suspensions are given out to LLC’s for many reasons, such as failure to file Statement of Information, failure to file form 568, and the most common failure to pay the $800 annual tax. The specific details of the FTB suspension are not known to the public.

After receiving an FTB suspension, you cannot legally operate, open any new contracts, or sell assets. While yosocialmedia.com’s home page still shows that they offer services like content production, website creation, and other services, on the “services” tab, the only offering is a partnership with Ventura Forward, Mrs. Noren’s husband’s Instagram page. Providing services like story mentions, interactions, collaborations and podcast mentions. These services are paid and cost between $250 and $2500, depending on what tier you choose. According to www.venturaforward.org, Mr. Noren’s website, they have grown to include 12 partners such as Fire Island Grill, Ivy Lawn Memorial Park, Pizza Chief, and others. In an interview by the Cougar Press done September 2025, Mr. Noren showed us the Yo Social website and how to select and sign up for his services, showing that the services were still available. As of May 2026, anyone can go onto the Yo Social website, pay, and enter a contract with the Yo Social LLC. If Yo Social and Ventura Forward hold up their end of the contract and keep the payment, that would be against the law, and the LLC holder could receive repercussions such as loss of Liability Protections, fines up to $2000 per tax year and the inability to enforce contracts.

Ventura Forward’s Instagram account (offering partnerships with Yo Social) could also face fines due to not declaring paid partnerships. According to the FTC website, “The disclosure should be placed with the endorsement message itself…If your endorsement is in a picture on a platform like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, superimpose the disclosure over the picture and make sure viewers have enough time to notice and read it…If making an endorsement in a video, the disclosure should be in the video and not just in the description uploaded with the video.”
Mr. Noren may violate many of these terms stated above. When asked, Mr. Noren responded, “Each month, I’m posting a list of sponsors, meaning businesses that pay money for paid advertising.” Paul Iniguez ‘26 said, “I did not know he was getting paid at all. I kind of, honestly, thought he was doing it for free.” Curren Stewart 27’ a student at FTHS said “I can’t tell when its a paid video I just thought he was promoting them”
Ventura Resident • May 23, 2026 at 5:51 am
That’s some great reporting. With VenturaForward, it always seems he is above others because he is a “reporter”. He has posted other artists’ content, including photographers’ and videographers’ work, under the VF brand and only later, after it gained views on Instagram, asked for permission to share it.
I hope there’s a follow-up story, along with a better response from Spencer. Keep up the great work.
Michelle • May 22, 2026 at 6:03 pm
Has a complaint to the FTC actually been made?
Andrea • May 22, 2026 at 5:12 pm
I first ran across him a few years ago when he showed up on social media discussing the Fairgrounds possibly being taken over by that PSG company. At first he had spoken out against the plan with the messaging that PSG wasn’t local and should not be accepted. Then in the run up to the Fair Board meeting his IG comments took an abrupt u-turn and he was suddenly promoting the project as a positive enhancement for the Fairgrounds area. It seemed odd to me so I messaged to ask about the change of heart and asked him if he was receiving compensation. This clearly made him angry, saying that I was “being a hater” who didn’t want him to be able to “make a living” for his family. I told him he was incorrect but if he was receiving compensation I thought he should at least make it clear in his posts instead of presenting himself as just a kind of goofy guy posting about local events and sharing his own opinions. I said it seemed kind of fraudulent to do so and I got the feeling a lot of his followers were asking the same question because soon after he added a comment to IG about Yo Social having a relationship with PSG but it was in no way connected with Ventura Forward so everything was on the up and up and we should just chill out. It was a lot of words being used to say not much in the inimitable VF way, but that’s another story. So that’s my Spencer Noren story. I don’t pretend to know what the law allows here, but I do feel in this case he was definitely trying to keep any business relationship he had with PSG undercover at the time.